Tragedy struck a family at Waigani, Port Moresby, this morning when their house went up in flames.
Julie Alo, from Enga Province, would have lost a family member as well, if it weren’t for quick-thinking neighbours.
Alo and her two children were standing outside the house, feeding a duck, when her three-year-old alerted her to the flames. This was between 7.35 and 7.40am.
She ran back to the burning home to check up on her family members, noted that they had all escaped, then backed her car out into the street.
“I have five children, my mother and my nephew. We are all safe,” she told Loop PNG, while nursing her the burns on her arms. “My husband went on a business trip last week so it’s just us.”
What Alo didn’t know was, after her neighbours alerted the fire service, a group of youths ran to the other side of the house, where one of the little boys was trapped.
“We grabbed timbers and started breaking the wall, which luckily, was fibro,” one of the youths told Loop.
“The heat was very intense. We pounded the wall with the timber, stepped back for air, then went at it again. Eventually we broke through and rescued the little boy.”
The first fire truck arrived at 8am, but had to look for a hydrant. It eventually located one 9 houses away.
Only the family’s canteen in front was saved from the flames, along with some of the stock inside.
Officers from the PNG Fire Service will formally establish the cause of the blaze.
